Weekend Outlook in the DMV
By Reach for the Wall Staff
This Saturday, June 23, The MCSL, Prince-Mont and NVSL summer leagues will compete in their Division championships while the Prince William League will complete their last dual meet of the season. Meanwhile, PVS is holding their last meet of the Long Course season with the 13 & Over Championships at the University of Maryland. Another weekend of sweltering heat and opportunities for fast swimming, as always remember to stay hydrated & Good Luck!
MCSL:
Division A: Rockville should complete the sweep of all the meets and retain the division title
Division B: Potomac is poised to complete their undefeated season
Division C: Chevy Chase Recreation has a commanding lead on the division and should take the title
Division D: Darnestown went undefeated in the duals, however finished 4th at the Relay Carnival. Unless Mohican can repeat their upset at Relay Carnival, Darnestown is in position to win.
Division E: Woodcliffe was unblemished in the duals and Relay Carnival, with Bannockburn solidly in 2nd. Woodcliffe should take the title.
Division F: Manchester Farm is well ahead of the pack for the division title, however, it will be a fierce battle for 2nd between Northwest Branch, Rockshire and Little Falls.
Division G: Seven Locks has risen to the occasion all season. Kenmont and Forest Knolls have a tight race to 2nd…Daleview could spoil it for one of those teams.
Division H: Hallowell has run the table in H this season and Cedarbrook sits comfortably in 2nd, Hallowell should complete the sweep.
Division I: Westleigh and Inverness are separated by 4 points in the overall standings. Whoever finishes ahead this weekend will will the division!
Division J: Olney Mill won their 5 dual meets, but only has a 2pt lead on a resurgent Potomac Woods for the division title. Can Potomac Woods shock Division J on Saturday?
Division K: Washingtonian Woods has a commanding lead after winning their 5 duals and Relay Carnival, they are the favorite for a clean sweep.
Division L: Norbeck Grove and Quail Valley are separated by 2pts in the standing by way of their finish at Relay Carnival. Can Norbeck Grove hold off Quail Valley for the title?
Division M: Plantations and North Creek are tied! The division title is up for grabs this Saturday.
Division N: Long Branch is tops in the division and likely will remain that way after Saturday.
Division O: Middlebridge won every event during the season & should remain undefeated!
NVSL:
The Division champion is awarded to the team that wins the most dual meets during the season, so the division meet is for bragging rights and good competition. As posted on the NVSL site, the last dual meet of the season saw some records go down:
“There were many fast swims throughout the League during the final dual meets of the season. Three new NVSL meters records were set. These are the first NVSL meters records set since 2019! Congratulations to Charis, and the Tuckahoe relay teams (Nolan, Isaac, JT, and Emanuel; Kyle, Grant, Hunter and JT) on their records!!
E18 Girls 13-14 50 Meter Backstroke 29.42 by Charis Roundtree of Virginia Run. (Charis “swam up” in the 15-18 Girls Backstroke during the meet.)
Old record was 29.75 set by Janet Hu of Mosby Woods on 7/17/2010 and equaled on 8/4/2018 by Alexandra Dicks of Hunter Mill.
E49 Boys 15-18 200 Meter Medley Relay 1:44.71 by Nolan Dunkel, Isaac Bell, JT Ewing and Emanuel Rouvelas of Tuckahoe.
Old record was 1:44.84 set by Ryan Soh, Tyler Lentine, Thomas Outlaw, and Ryan Mathis of Chesterbrook on 7/6/2019.
E51 Boys 15-18 200 Meter Mixed Age Free Relay 1:49.25 by Kyle Koay, Grant Nielsen, Hunter Zipperer and JT Ewing of Tuckahoe.
Old record was 1:49.40 set by Ryan Bradshaw, Alex, Andrews, Johnny Bradshaw and David DiMeglio of Hamlet on 7/14/2018.”
Good luck to everyone in Divisionals tomorrow!! Please don’t forget to share your pictures and videos with us! #nvsl pic.twitter.com/n81KdbBDT0
— Northern Virginia Swimming League (@swimNVSL) July 22, 2022
Division Champs:
Division 1: Chesterbrook, 5-0
Division 2: McLean, 5-0
Division 3: Old Keene Mill, 5-0
Division 4: Cardinal Hill, 5-0
Division 5: Hiddenbrook and Little Hunting Park both were 4-1
Division 6: Sleepy Hollow Rec, 5-0
Division 7: Lakevale Estates, 5-0
Division 8: Hunter Mill and Fairfax both 4-1
Division 9: Poplar Heights, 5-0
Division 10: Camelot, Walden Glen and Sully Station all finished 4-1
Division 11: Parklawn 5-0
Division 12: Fox Hunt, 5-0
Division 13: Mansion House, 5-0
Division 14: Fox Mill Woods, 5-0
Division 15: Kings Ridge, 5-0
Division 16: Commonwealth, 5-0
Division 17: Springfield, 5-0
PWSL:
Here’s the league standings snapshot after week 5, with Piedmont leading the way at 5-0:
As reported on the PWSL league site, “PWSL week 5 is in the books – looking over the summary sheet, we had just under 3600 swimmers in the water this weekend; that’s the most this season and back to our numbers from the end of 2018, closing in on pre-pandemic 2019 numbers. Hopefully a good sign for growth in coming seasons.”
Ho hum. Another year, another Division A title.
for the public pool with no members…
Another year, another title for Rockville, but some things have changed. Stonebridge is the first team other than RV or SG to finish in the top two since Upper County won first place in the MCSL in 2015. Stonebridge ranks second going into next year and Stonegate is down to fourth in the division for the first time in a long time. Tallyho has dropped out of A after six years, while Country Glen had its first strong year in A in a long time. In other words, saying Rockville “just won another title” obscures the changes and churns just below Rockville. Always momentous to see another neighborhood get second in the league.
If you have followed Stonebridges rise you would know they are certainly not a neighborhood pool. Their rep canvasses the county to fill their holes and improve their team. Word is they will add a multi time league record holder for summer 2023.
I don’t think we should be encouraging Rockville light at SB. Just because they aren’t a public pool doesn’t make their recruiting any different.
But if you look at the 3 contenders for A next year and you think you can contend in this league if you are doing things the right way with neighborhood kids you are crazy. Much respect to coaches at TH, CG and SG for understanding what summer swim is all about
It’s amazing how much hate brews from a few comments. Accusing Rockville for not being a neighborhood pool? Reps canvassing the county recruiting for swimmers? Listen to how stupid that sounds. And really – who cares?
What is summer swim all about? Please enlighten all of us so that we understand it better? So coaches at TH, CG, and SG understand it, but the remainder of the coaches don’t?
It’s all about the kids. Don’t disrespect the hard job that EVERY coach has to do, irrespective of how good or bad the talent might be or where they come from. This chatter will only build animosity and take away from the respect that all teams have traditionally shown each other.
And who are the three contenders for next year in A? Can you be so sure of such a thing just now? How do you track these supposed transfers? And hear about them a year in advance?
Also, as pertains to pools like Stonegate, can we dissociate their amazing streak from their head coach’s direct link to RMSC? Where does that leave Potomac, who has seen a rise recently I presume for a similar reason? For the record, I don’t think that is a bad thing – but it certainly helps a team a lot. I agree with you that it’s hard to compete with teams that are like machines, but I think part of being machine comes from one’s head coach also being an important winter head coach, which is absolutely the case for some of these top teams you’ve just praised.
What a silly comment. I happen to live in the Stonebridge community. Every swimmer on that team lives near that pool and goes to the same ES, MS, HS. Don’t hate. It’s summer swim, keep it light. Let’s just be happy for these kids across all the teams.
I can give a few examples. For the 2021 season SB aggressively recruited 2 older swimmers, neither of which live anywhere near SB to their team. These swimmers had good seasons and helped the team a bunch. However, they recruited swimmers over top of them for 2022 and now those swimmers who were handpicked to be key cogs last year were replaced this year by new transfers in. All the while, a handful of lifelong SB kids who only do what is asked of them have been slotted further and further down the depth chart by the ringers who come in each year. Summer swimming isn’t about building out your roster from kids who live in Rockville, Germantown and Potomac to make your team elite. It’s about having fun, cheering, and competing with kids who can walk to the pool with you. It’s about watching kids grow from preteamers to 18 year old graduates and sharing hugs with their coaches after their final swims. These are the things that are missed on cut throat teams who will win at all costs.
I don’t mean to say that there aren’t a lot of good coaches in the league. My point is simply in the top tier of the league, the work Akshay, Geoff, and Brian do to A) make our sport fun and B) do their best to compete with neighborhood kids. Three of the most spirited teams and closeknit teams in the league which cannot be said for the musical chairs recruiting teams who field new lineups every week.
One particular comment about Brian’s connection to RMSC. I would strongly encourage you to sit down and talk to him about the big picture of swimming, club swim, and summer swim. I was once skeptical of their pipeline but having talked to him and watched him coach up close, he makes swimming really fun for his swimmers. He has formed a great community and he is a big reason so many SG kids fall in love with the sport and he encourages those who are interested to pursue winter swim opportunities. And he’s very competitive, on Saturdays he will give 100% to try and win the meet but more importantly the community he has built would be something to be proud of in divison E or I or O, and that’s worth more than any Rockville league title with kids who are learning each others names on meet day.
Your recent post is even harder for anyone to believe than your first one. As a resident of the SB community, I’ll try to help you out a little. For any SB swimmer from the 2021 and 2022 season who “had a good season and helped the team a bunch” (I’m assuming you mean scored a lot of points in looking at the results), anyone can easily do a little digging on MCPS Swim and see that they all swim for the same high school…meaning they’re locals and friends. All of them actually grew up together and became good friends through swimming. And for any “ringers” that you may be referring to? Anyone who scored significant pts all live close enough to either walk or bike to the pool.
And the 3 coaches that you’re referring to likely happen to either know SB’s “older swimmers” well or coach summer teams where their older swimmers are friends with SB’s older swimmers and would validate those facts (they all swim at the same club and compete during the winter HS season). And btw, one of them happened to get a transfer this summer who was a “ringer” and “older swimmer”. But guess what? Nobody cares (in a negative competitive way) and nobody is throwing up their arms. Doubt there was any “aggressive recruiting”. Just happy that the swimmer found a good home.
That’s a part of what summer swim is all about…finding homes, building friendships and spending time with friends. Even nicer to see the friendships develop between these teams. Seriously, try to focus on that. Don’t worry so much about who’s ranked where and how they got there. I’m not sure that anyone really cares at the end of the day. Most teams are probably still coming off the high from the end-of-season banquets.
And it seems like you’re speculating a bit with some strong words. “Aggressively recruiting”? “Handpicked to be key cogs”? “Handful of lifelong SB kids getting pushed down the depth chart”? It makes for a great story in the Post. Bezos would hire you. But it sounds more like Lebron and the Lakers than MCSL. And if you knew SB at all, you’d know that there wasn’t much depth with the older kids for anyone to even get pushed. Try not to generalize what you may feel with other teams or your own team. Again, it’s summer swim. Fun, light, cool alternative to camp. Let’s try to keep it that way.
To add onto what “Go Stone Mill” said, this year 35% of Stonebridge’s team was comprised of pre-teamers. In other words, neighborhoods cycle and there are a LOT of young kids on that team (unless you want to argue that the pool poached 100 pre-teamers to add to their mini meet roster!). Also, SB was in C for 6 straight years until 2010 before dropping down to G for just two and coming back up steadily. If the SB neighborhood low-point was bottom of Division G in 2012, I would not consider this to be some sort of meteoric rise. Plenty of teams and neighborhoods have completed similar cycles over the years (Potomac fell far lower and is now in A.) It’s also worth noting that SB was, save for one year, a fairly poorly coached team from about 2006 to 2012. The current coach, Josh, who is fantastic, has been with the team on and off for the past few years. And, if you want to talk about some pre-meditated strategy to ‘rise up,’ the year the team made the biggest jump (from E to B in 2019) he was not even the head coach. So really, the neighborhood has been cycling up and has had a serious of good coaches since around 2012.
Stone mill, I’m not sure you have a full grasp on what is going on with the power brokers at stonebridge.
I can tell you the 2 2021 transfers A) do not live near stonebridge unless you count a 20 minute ride to Germantown as close in one instance B) neither moved houses which should be necessary to transfer without sitting out under McsL rules. Point B is a league wide gripe I have about transfer rules not being enforced. Needless to say these swimmers cannot bike or walk to your pool. They switched to your pool explicitly because your rep approached them because they would make the team better. This displaced a handful of good swimmers (look no further than some of your many swimmer-coaches). Then this year 2 more kids were brought in overtop. Admittedly the larger impact addition does live in the area, but just knowing A) the original SB kids and the ones who were recruited to pay a lot of $ and join the pool, only to be thrown to the side in search of more points. This has an effect on the kids, it really sends a poor message to them that they are expendable and not important to the community.
And just because these kids all go to Wootton HS are friends doesn’t mean that gives SB the right to poach RS, RV, or Willows kids who already have a team, that isn’t in the spirit of the league. Additionally the recruit SB kids will tell you about if you talk to them they are trying to add for 2023 does not live in the school district, so that argument doesn’t hold in my book, the rep wants the swimmer because they are historically fast, not because they are a community member.
You are pretty uninformed to say there was not much depth in the SB older kids, and this is just unequivocally false. 15-18 age group alone SB has around 15 kids who either swim in an “Advanced Senior” group or “National Training Group”, virtually all of which have all star times and swim at least 6 days a week if not more. If anything the group deserves compliments, many good swimmers a lot of really good kids.
It’s really great that you are emphasizing the fun and the friendships and comraderie of summer swimming. I agree that’s what it’s all about. I know many many SB families and swimmers and have only nice things to say about them. I truly think the competitive nature of people at the top there has greatly veered away from the key points you as being essential to summer swim. They’ve upped their game in the pool and fallen behind on spirit and cheering just like RV BE etc. If winning is enough for you go ahead and be RV 2 , but at the end of the day the experience as the homegrown team.
Overall, I think the league should really turn its efforts towards making this fun and a fair playing field because going up against non-cheering super teams isn’t fun for the true neighborhood pools. We have transfer rules, let’s enforce them. We have uniform and cap rules, let’s enforce them. We currently let swimmers swim invitational meets and divisionals after showing up to only 1 dual meet. Let’s raise the bar there so ringers aren’t being brought in at the last second for big meets. Hope the MCSL board steps up
Haters gonna hate.
Is anyone other than the teams you mentioned interested in the battle for second place?
Ever since I can remember (20 years for me), teams in the league have always talked about this, but I guess you are too in your solipsistic bubble to notice that. It’s possible to enjoy and appreciate the competition without getting first in the league. In fact, teams on the bubble of A often talk just about who made it into A. Somehow, you claim to care about competition, but only notice the name of your own team. It’s a shame.
I’m sorry to have caused you to get your panties in a bunch.
RFTW, thanks again for capturing the highlights in the DMV!
Got a big chuckle out of MCSL Fan’s post…The Rockville No-Members. Too funny. As an MCSL fan for over 30 years, I was definitely interested in Division A in MCSL’s first full year back. Was so cool to see that Country Glen, Stonegate, and Stonebridge were fighting for the “Neighborhood Champs” Title at the final Divisionals Meet. When was the last time that we had 3 teams battle for the title in the final week? Kudos to all 3 teams for battling all season. You guys are all champs and classy teams in my book. And congrats to Stonebridge for pulling it off with a narrow margin.
Great to see Flower Valley back in A after taking a break. Tallyho, hope to see you back there soon. And loved the battles between Potomac and Wildwood Manor this year. Congrats to Potomac for the title and making it to A next year. I like Rockville too, they’re a really nice group of kids. Just poking at them since Mr Rockville Rays Rule is asking for it 🙂 . But the Rockville No-Members team name, it’s catchy. Too funny…
Good luck to everyone this weekend at All Stars!
The Rockville Rays have members. They are all members of RMSC.
Really great to see the competition this season. So many great swimmers. Loved seeing the team spirit from Country Glen this season. Aside from the friendly banter here, I do have to give a shout out to the Stonebridge team for their Instagram page. Just wow. So great to see them highlighting the fun that they are having, as that is a huge part of what summer swim is all about. Great job Rockville and really all of the swim teams out there! It’s so great to see the kids enjoying themselves after the Covid break!